


Choice

by DesertVixen



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Luke needs a pep talk, SW Legends Fusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 12:38:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14449452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Luke gets a pep talk





	Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/gifts).



He stared at the burnt remains if the tree, hearing Master Yoda’s voice telling him that masters were what their students grew beyond. Luke marveled at the irony of Yoda choosing now to appear to him, when it was Yoda he had left the time he made the opposite choice – to leave Dagobah and to go save his friends. Then, Yoda had warned him against leaving. Now, Luke felt as if his choice to stay was somehow wrong.

There was nothing he wanted to do more, especially since now he knew Leia was alone, that Han Solo was gone, that the situation was desperate. But he had made his decision, that the Jedi had to end, and he knew that some people would have to suffer. Even if his impulse had been to save the ancient Jedi texts – not page turners, he admitted, but valuable – Luke had made up his mind. The Jedi had to end, if there was to be any peace in the galaxy.

“It won’t solve things, you know.”

Luke looked up at the sound of the woman’s voice but said nothing.

“Fixing everything – or trying to – used to be your strong point.” Mara Jade shoved back her hood, letting her hair tumble about a face that had seen the years, but was still one of the most striking he had ever seen.

“You used to say it was my weakness.” He didn’t need Mara piling in on him as well.

She shrugged, sank down to sit beside him, much as she had done once before. “It made you who you are,” Mara said simply. “It made you a hero.”

Luke sighed. “For all the good it did.”

“Why didn’t you send the girl to me?” Mara asked after an uncomfortable silence. 

“Like everyone else, she wanted the hero Luke Skywalker.” He thought back to sitting on the lonely Falcon, the ship where everything had started, with Artoo playing Leia’s long-ago plea for help. _Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope._ Even the droid seemed disappointed in Luke’s decision not to answer that plea again, to stay out of the fight.

If he was Leia’s only hope, then her situation was truly hopeless.

“She wanted to use the Force as a weapon, not learn how to understand it,” he said, feeling her gaze on him.

“It can be a weapon,” she said softly. “You could have sent her to me. But you didn’t let her know there was another Jedi here, did you?”

He could have, but he had worried about the idea of Mara taking on a student, especially one with as much raw power as Rey had. Look how it had turned out for him, for Ben, for everyone. Mara was hidden in a dark-side Force shadow, and he had let Rey believe that he was the only Jedi on the island. – to protect both Mara and Rey, he told himself. “She wanted a hero more than a teacher.”

“You could still be both if you chose to,” Mara said sharply. 

Choice. That word had the power to paralyze him, since it seemed like so many of his choices had turned out to be the wrong ones. He’d chosen to save his friends, chosen to try and save what was left of his father, had chosen to instruct his nephew. 

He’d made a choice and lived to regret it. Not just him, but so many other people who had suffered or died because of his choice. 

His students. 

Kylo Ren’s victims. 

His brother-in-law.

How could he choose again, knowing how much was riding on his choice? Plus, with Rey and Chewie’s departure, what difference would his choice even make? He had no way to leave the island, unless he took Mara’s ship. He had missed the chance to choose.

Or had he, Luke wondered for a moment. Maybe Mara was right, and he could still do both, could be a hero one last time and teach his final lesson. 

Mara stood – he could hear the gravel shifting under her feet – and turned to face him.

“Not choosing is a choice,” she said softly.

He couldn’t tell her what he had planned, afraid she would try to talk him out of it - or that she would try to join him. 

But he had chosen. 

He just hoped it would be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by your prompts that a) Mara might be on the island and b) Luke needs a boot in the ass to get going.
> 
> I decided to go with the fusion idea, so I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
